The Sharpest Edges
by BobLoblawLawBlog
Summary: Korra goes to the police station to confront Mako about his avoidance of her. Written in response to the Book 3, Episode 1 "sneak peek."


Finding an excuse was the easy part. Now that she had mastered the glider, Naga only got to go out if Korra made a point of riding her. And that wasn't happening as often as either of them would have liked.

Korra let her hands linger against the soft warmth of Naga's flesh as she saddled her, talking to her softly and laughing each time the polarbeardog caught her with her long wet tongue. When she mounted, she could feel the muscles in Naga's flanks flexing in anticipation, as twitchy and restless as Korra felt all over, inside and out.

The air was warm but breezy as they made their way down to the dock. The ever lengthening sunset was well underway, red and pink blooming up from the bay behind them as the ferry launched toward the mainland. "We'll go for a swim another time," she promised, to herself as much as her friend.

On the other side, the landing was nearly deserted, but she felt the eyes of the few people standing around as they disembarked, though when she tried to meet them, they looked away. Emotions in this case were a complicated thing, and Korra could feel herself pulled between anger and resignation and tears of frustration. Off in the distance, Avatar Aang Memorial Island was still a wreck, a reminder of what had happened, what she'd done for this city and what the cost had been, both for her personally and for everyone else. "Come on, girl," she said, and nudged Naga toward the street.

The part of the city they travelled through was quiet, almost deserted, so many of the apartment buildings rendered practically unlivable by the spirit wilds incursion. When it seemed safe, she coaxed Naga to a run, letting the great beast take the rein and release whatever had been building inside of her for the past few days. As they ran past facades with only a few lights flickering in windows and long, tangled vine growths, Korra closed her eyes for just a second and tried to imagine that they were back on the tundra and that the only thing they were running from was the White Lotus Compound and the rigors of training. She no longer really belonged there, back in that place. She had other duties. But she couldn't help but feel that neither she nor this creature of the glaciers belonged in the city either.

They came to a street that was still passable by Satomobile and slowed down to maneuver around traffic. In the distance was the police station, where a giant section of the building was torn away and vines protruded from the metal roof. Korra's stomach did a slight flip, and she thought about turning around. But mechanically, she urged Naga forward, knowing deep down that this was both a stupid idea and something she'd never get to sleep without doing.

"I'll just be a few minutes," Korra said, rubbing Naga's head. The polarbeardog caught her by her shirt as she tried to walk away, and Korra turned around to embrace the giant head one more time. "It'll be quick. I promise." A primal moan resonated somewhere deep in Naga's body, and Korra felt it vibrate through her bones. She rested her face against the coarse fur and closed her eyes for a minute. "I'll let you sleep in my room tonight, girl," she whispered, and Naga licked her appreciatively, having been regularly deprived over the last six months of Korra's nightly company for the sake of someone else.

Inside headquarters, Korra took a second to orient herself and, not knowing where else to go, headed in the direction of Bei Fong's office. On her way she ran into Bei Fong.

"Korra," the Chief said matter-of-factly, the barest hint of surprise in her tone.

"Lin," she said, suddenly awkward and at a loss for words, an excuse to offer for why she was there. "Um…I'm sorry about what happened at City Hall today."

Bei Fong quirked an eyebrow. "You said as much earlier, not that you needed to apologize to _me._"

Korra licked her lips nervously and stared down at her boots, searching for something else to say.

"You came all the way here just to apologize?"

Meeting her eyes, Korra swallowed and knew it was time to cut the bullshit. "No."

Bei Fong nodded. "You know where to find him."

"Yeah," she responded softly, her voice dry and a little husky.

Up two floors and down a long hallway, she came upon a set of doors she'd kicked open the last time she'd been there. As if to compensate, she pushed them open slowly, her touch light on the metal surface. And inside she looked from right to left and saw just a few heads hunched over mounds of paperwork, including one in the far right corner, at the desk closest to Bei Fong's office door.

He didn't look up. It wasn't too late yet to turn around, to slip back between the doors and go home. But her feet took her onward, across the room to stop several feet away and fidget with something or other on top of an unoccupied desk. Some knick-knacks fell to the floor, and she cursed under her breath.

"Korra?" She winced a little at the sound of his voice.

"Yeah," she said, replacing the fallen objects and walking toward his desk. He looked at her quizzically as she approached, clearly waiting for her to explain herself. "I'm here to see Bei Fong," she blurted all at once, the words tumbling out before she had time to really think about whether they even made sense.

"Bei Fong left already."

"Yeah, I ran into her in the hallway."

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

They were quiet for what felt like an hour. Korra looked down at his desk, at the neat stacks of paper on either side, meticulously organized. And for just a second, she found herself resenting his control, his composure.

"Anyway, I just thought I'd come say hi while I was here."

She dared to meet his eyes and saw something in them that she couldn't quite read. And just as she was beginning to get a lock on it, it went away as he smiled—a little too broadly. "Well, thanks for coming by," he said pleasantly, and the tone in his voice as he said it grated against her ears. It felt more than anything like he was trying to get rid of her.

"Look, I haven't seen you all week..."

"Yeah," he interrupted, his face turning slightly dark again. "I've just been really busy. What with the promotion and everything that's going on."

She wanted to scream at him that he was a liar, but the scene in that very room that had led quite directly to the present one still echoed in her mind, reminding her that if she wanted to keep Mako in her life at all…

"Well, I've been really busy too."

"Yeah, I … I heard Raiko's press conference."

"Oh, you _heard _that, huh?" she had an impossible time keeping the edge out of her voice.

"It's going to be fine, Korra," he said, and his tone with her got soft all of a sudden, like he had already followed the path of her anger back to the deep well of isolation and frustration and guilt that it sprang from. In a gesture as awkward as it was kind, he reached out a hand and pressed lightly on her shoulder for a few seconds and then withdrew it. She looked back up at him and saw that he was still beautiful and briefly longed for the time when it would have been appropriate to throw herself in his arms and tell him everything. It was two weeks and yet somehow a million years ago.

"Why are you avoiding me?" she heard herself say, trying to swallow it back the second it escaped her lips.

"I'm not avoiding you." His brows were bunched together in the middle of his forehead.

"Bolin said you were brooding."

"Bolin says a _lot _of things…"

"What are you brooding about?"

"Korra, I'm _not _brooding."

She tried to challenge him with her eyes, but she was afraid it came across as longing. _Tell me you don't miss me_ was the sentence lingering at the tip of her tongue. But for once, she was able to keep it there.

Finally, he sighed, as if he had given in and agreed to be the one to break the tension. "I'm going to go get some coffee. Do you want some?"

She brushed at the tips of her eyelashes with her fingers and nodded, knowing she likely wouldn't be sleeping much that night anyway.

They sat at a little break room down the hall and tried to make small talk. She told him about Bumi and watched his eyebrows go up with surprise. And he told her a little bit about the cases he was working on, and for twenty whole minutes it felt like things could be sort of ok again.

On the way back to the bullpen, he stopped at the door to what looked like a storage room. "One second," he said, opening the door quickly and slipping inside. She peeked, and through the crack, she saw a bare light bulb hanging over a saggy-looking cot. She crossed her arms and waited for him to come back out, and when he did, she pushed the door all the way open to get a better look.

The cot looked like it had been dragged up from one of the holding cells in detention. A blanket was neatly folded on top of it, and on a hook on the wall was Mako's regular, non-uniform jacket and scarf. "Mako, is this where you're _sleeping?_" She was incredulous, angry even. Because what possible reason could he have for choosing _this_?

His arms were folded across his chest when she looked back at him, clearly defensive and annoyed. "It's convenient. I'm work sixteen…eighteen hours a day. I don't have time to go back and forth."

"Bullshit," she said, staring him down.

"Korra…" he pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers and squinted his eyes.

"Mako, this is ridiculous. This isn't…this isn't _ok _for you to be living like this."

"I've lived in far worse conditions than this." There was anger in his voice this time, and she felt her pulse spike, the display of emotion exciting her just slightly, just like it always had. The line between anger and passion had always been a fuzzy one for them. But then just as suddenly, the tension dissolved. His arms fell to his sides. "This isn't…_easy_, ok?"

Korra looked at the ground, her eyes stinging just a little bit. "So you _are_ avoiding me?"

He caught her eyes, and the look he gave her was pained. She kept herself rooted, but there were other things that her body was prompting her to do. One was to punch him. The other was to pull him to her by his lapels and force her lips onto his, kick the door shut and make love to him right there on his pathetic little cot.

She chose neither.

"Yeah, kind of," he finally said, and he smiled little as he said it, sheepish, like a child caught in a lie.

"Are you going to do that forever?" At this point, she couldn't keep the despair from showing. She couldn't keep from leaving clues as to how much she still needed him, needed his steady presence alongside her, supporting her, reminding her what was right even if she didn't want to hear it.

"I hope not," he said, and he sounded genuinely unsure. Korra could feel the pull in her abdomen, the moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes, that told her she needed to get away.

"Ok," she sort of said, sort of whispered. "Well, when you're ready. Air Temple Island is always open."

He nodded, and she resolved to skip the walk back to the bullpen in favor of a quick escape. "I should get going."

And with that, she pushed past him and set a brisk pace down the hallway with blood pounding inside her head. She got halfway down it when all of a sudden footsteps caught up behind her and a hand jerked her around.

"Hey," he said, and just like that, he had his arms around her, pulling her up on her tiptoes so that her head was between his neck and his shoulder. It took her several seconds to react, but at last she nestled her face there, feeling hot tears soaking into the collar of his uniform. Her arms embraced his neck, and she felt his squeeze even tighter. Their bodies swayed a little from side to side, and she heard a sniff come from him that made her tears feel a little less foolish. "Not forever," he whispered.

She squeezed one more time and then let her arms relax. His eyes were bloodshot when she found them again, and one of his hands came up to cup her face, tilting it up toward his. "I promise, ok?"

All she could do was nod and go slightly limp as he pulled her toward him one more time and planted a kiss on her forehead, slightly wet but chaste, the only _"I love you"_ he could give her in that moment.

And when he turned to go back to work, she didn't watch his back disappear down the hallway. She didn't wait to see if she herself could summon the courage to pull him back to her and make him stay. She just beat a path back to Naga and sank her tear-streaked face into the welcoming fur. And from her companion's throat came an animal whine that almost sounded like sympathy.

"I know, I know," she said into Naga's giant ear. "I thought we were done crying over this too." Korra dug a fist into both eyes and tried to wipe away the clinging moisture that kept coming from somewhere. "You can _definitely _sleep in my room tonight."

And with that, a huge tongue licked her face, and Korra laughed as its rough texture smoothed away the very sharpest edges of her pain.


End file.
